“When They Moved the Cemetery…”: Hybridisation of Belief in the Afterlife after Flood Zone Resettlement in Ukraine

Abstract

The article analyses changes in Ukrainian folk beliefs about the afterlife in the face of forced resettlement due to the construction of hydroelectric power stations and water reservoirs. During resettlement, folk beliefs were adapted to the conditions of the time, under the influence of Soviet atheism and propaganda. Later, especially since the independence of Ukraine, migrants have tried to restore the lost connection between the living and the dead by establishing and consecrating crosses on common graves in which the remains of former villagers are reburied. Today, narratives about the relocation of a cemetery express anxiety about the disturbance of the dead and the idea of the impossibility of complete resettlement from an ancient place of residence.